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Touchline issue 22 | November 2015 | 27
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The Spanish basketball
team makes slanty eyes:
Beijing 2008.
Whoever came up with this
idea definitely needs some
sensitivity training. In this
promotional photo, the
Spanish men’s and women’s
teams can be seen making
“slanty eyes” for the Beijing
Olympics. The men’s team
went on the win silver, beaten
by the US. This final may
have been the first where the
Chinese crowd were rooting for the
Americans.
•Voula Papachristou’s racist
tweet:
London 2012.
Before the London Olympics, Greek
triple jumper Papachristou got
kicked off the team for this pearler:
“With so many Africans in Greece,
the West Nile mosquitoes will be
getting home food!!!”. The Olympic
spirit is weak in that one.
•Adolf Hitler vs. Jesse Owens:
Berlin 1936.
Hitler is perhaps the most
infamous racist in history, and the
Olympics gave the world its first
televised evidence of this ugly fact.
Convinced that hosting the games
would put his theories of German
supremacy to the test, Hitler must
have enjoyed some uncomfortable
moments when African-American
runner Jesse Owens owned the
running events. This qualifies as
both a fail and a dummy spit, as the
Fuhrer refused to give Owens his
four gold medals personally.
•Ara Abrahamian chucks his
bronze:
Beijing 2008.
Swedish wrestler Abrahamian
decided to leave quiet dignity back
in the locker room during the finals
in Beijing. Incensed by what he
considered incorrect calls by the
judges, he had to be restrained
from attacking them physically. On
receiving his bronze, he stormed
off the podium and threw the
medal on the ground. It is unknown
whether he later retrieved it but
it would not have mattered as he
was stripped of it by the IOC for
behaving badly.
•Byun Jong-li’s sit in:
Seoul 1988.
Boxing can always be counted on
for controversy. It seemed like a
pretty obvious call when South
Korean boxer Byun was disqualified
for head-butting. Byun, however,
didn’t see it that way. In protest at
the call, he staged a sit in, refusing
to leave the ring. He stayed there
until the stadium emptied and the
lights were turned off. Needless
to say, the IOC didn’t cave to his
ridiculous protest.
•Meyer Pristein doesn’t
compete on the Sabbath,
punches rival who did:
Paris 1900.
Just because most of bad behaviour
happened in the last few decades
doesn’t mean there weren’t
jerk moves being pulled back in
the early days of the Olympics.
Prinstein won the silver medal
in the long jump losing to Alvin
Kraenzlein after being denied
permission by Syracuse officials
to compete in the final because
it was contested on a Sunday –
despite the fact that Prinstein was
a Jew, and Kraenzlein, who was a
Christian, did compete. The two
had had an informal agreement not
to compete on Sunday, and when
Prinstein learned that Kraenzlein
had competed he became angry
and punched Kraenzlein in the face.
Both men can be considered the
first Olympic jerks.